The present invention relates to linear flash lamps for the generation of ultraviolet (UV) light, particularly in the deep UV region of the spectrum.
Although linear flash lamps are widely used in many different applications, in practice they find only limited use as generators of deep UV light. The generation of radiation in this part of the spectrum with such lamps requires that the lamps be run at high current densities, and this leads to a drastic reduction in lamp lifetime. For example, a xenon flash lamp with a bore diameter of 6 millimeters and a length of 6 inches is normally run at a current density of 1 to 2 kiloamperes per square centimeter (kAmp/cm.sup.2) and has a lifetime of a few hundred million pulses. At current densities of about 8 kAmp/cm.sup.2 the lifetime is reduced by a factor of about 1000--to about 500,000 pulses,--which makes the generation of deep UV radiation with conventional lamps commercially impractical.